ACCORDING to the government's spin, half the North West's population will benefit from job-boosting EU regional aid.

That aid would be worth more than £250million a year if its proposals to raise spending on Britain's needy areas get the go-ahead from Europe.

Yet, the reality of the revised Assisted Areas Map published today, supposedly earmarking those needy spots, is that it has shrunk -- so much so that 300,000 fewer people are covered by it -- and that, amazingly, better-off places are placed on it while poor ones have been thrown off.

And, incredibly, this is after fine-tuning of the system is supposed to have ensured that the truly needy qualify for the crucial grants to help firms create new jobs and improve the prosperity of the disadvantaged regions.

East Lancashire, striving for decades to overcome the decline of its traditional industries of textiles, engineering and mining, has long been squeezed in the scramble for regional aid, but this time, there is the added insult of truly deprived parts of our area at risk of being robbed of help while more prosperous ones remain in line for it. We recall the clash last year at Cabinet level when trade supremo Stephen Byers wanted the whole of Blackburn, Darwen and the Ribble Valley on the map while deputy premier John Prescott objected and insisted on much smaller parts of towns being the targets for the EU aid.

So what of the upshot of this detailed examination? Of 16 East Lancashire wards removed from the map among scores nationwide are Daneshouse in Burnley, Huncoat in Hyndburn and Greenfield in Haslingden -- all areas with outstanding social and economic problems -- while added to it is Billinge in Blackburn, arguably the town's most well-heeled spot.

Whether this absurd situation stems from blundering at ministerial level here or ignorance in the EU Commission which demanded cuts, the fact is that the result is as unfair as it is ludicrous.

It must be rectified before the EU finally approves the aid map. We look to East Lancashire's MPs to shout out the error -- otherwise vital job creating aid stands to be misdirected for seven whole years. That cannot be allowed.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.